UNext.com To Provide World-Class Business Education Via the Internet; Internet Pioneer Forms Coalition With Elite Universities to Develop Online Business Education Curriculum

Business Wire, June 23, 1999

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 23, 1999--

UNext.com, a privately held Internet education company, has formed an academic alliance with four highly respected universities to develop a world-class business education curriculum delivered over the Internet. The participating universities are Columbia University, the University of Chicago, Stanford University and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

"With the help of these great universities, UNext.com will create and deliver a new opportunity in higher education that has never been possible before: a world-class business education accessible to people all over the world," said Andy Rosenfield, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of UNext.com. "Our mission quite simply is to provide access to the best continuing education for working adults and corporations worldwide via the Internet."

UNext.com will introduce its new business curriculum through its new online business education community called Cardean. Cardean courses will be based on the latest academic theories and content provided by UNext's esteemed university affiliates. Available initially only to corporations, UNext's single courses or complete areas of concentration for a certificate will eventually be available to individual students. Over time, Cardean will provide core business courses in accounting, finance, marketing, organization development, international business and other areas of concentration. Eventually, Cardean will seek full accreditation to be able to offer a MBA degree program online. The courses will be delivered using Lotus LearningSpace.

The growing demand for knowledge

"Corporations are recognizing the importance of investing in their own human capital," said Gary S. Becker, a Nobel Prize winning economist, professor at the University of Chicago and member of the UNext Academic Advisory Board. "In today's knowledge-based global economy, an investment in people ultimately provides the best return."

"The demand for quality continuing education is growing globally, and now we have the means to deliver a world-class education anywhere in the world," said Rosenfield. "Through Cardean, the student is the center of the universe, not the professor or the university. Through the Internet, adult learners will be able to access Cardean courses whenever and wherever it is convenient for them, with less disruption of their careers and home life."

Cardean will offer its first business course in finance this fall. The development of additional courses, based on the content provided by its four contributing universities, will begin later this summer and fall. "We have a lot of exciting work ahead of us, but look forward to being able to offer more courses to select corporations in 2000," said Rosenfield.

A strong academic foundation

From its beginning, UNext sought the advice and counsel of leading business educators by establishing an Academic Advisory Board. The board is composed of distinguished academic leaders, including: Kenneth J. Arrow, a Nobel Prize winner in Economics and Professor Emeritus at Stanford University; Jack Gould, the Stephen Rothmeier Distinguished Service Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business and former Dean of the Graduate School of Business; Keith Lumsden, the founder and Dean of Edinburgh Business School and former professor of economics at the Stanford Business School; Merton H. Miller, Nobel Prize winner in Economics and Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business: and Nobel Laureate Gary Becker.

In addition, UNext has established an Academic Council to coordinate curriculum and set academic policies. The Academic Council includes Meyer Feldberg, Dean, Columbia Business School; Robert Hamada, Dean, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business; Geoff Cox, Deputy Provost, Stanford University; and Stephen Hill, Pro-Director, London School of Economics and Political Science.

Remarks from UNext.com's university consortium

Meyer Feldberg, Dean of the Columbia Business School said, "As the first university to enter into an agreement with UNext.com., we are excited about the extraordinary potential for this initiative. The venture offers the school an opportunity to leverage its many decades of intellectual property creation and development and project Columbia's educational capacity and unique culture into the new media educational space of the Internet."

Geoffrey Stone, Provost of the University of Chicago said, "The Internet provides an extraordinary opportunity to expand our educational outreach to a much larger constituency. UNext.com is so interesting because it creates a consortium of world-class universities, enabling each of them to participate in a comprehensive, online education program without having to take the financial risk of making such large investments necessary."

Geoff Cox, Deputy Provost of Stanford University said, "We are accustomed to working with private businesses. What interests us so much in our affiliation with UNext.com is that it allows the university to extend its educational mission around the globe."